Wall Street Tracks ‘Wolves’ as May 1 Protests Loom

Members of Occupy San Francisco, an off-shoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement, march down California Street as they protest during a Wells Fargo & Co. annual shareholders meeting in San Francisco, California on Tuesday, April 24. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

April 26 (Bloomberg) -- The world’s biggest banks are
working with one another and police to gather intelligence as
protesters try to rejuvenate the Occupy Wall Street movement
with May demonstrations, industry security consultants said.

Among 99 protest targets in midtown Manhattan on May 1 are
JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. offices, said
Marisa Holmes, a member of Occupy’s May Day planning committee.
Events are scheduled for more than 115 cities, including an
effort to shut down the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco,
where Wells Fargo & Co. investors relied on police to get past
protests at their annual meeting this week.

“Our goal is to kick off the spring offensive and go
directly to where the financial elite play and plan,” she said.

After evictions and arrests from Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park
to London that began last year, the movement against income
inequality and corporate abuse will regain strength, said Brian
McNary, director of global risk at Pinkerton Consulting &
Investigations, a subsidiary of Sweden’s Securitas AB. He works
with international financial firms to “identify, map and
track” protesters across social media and at their assemblies,
he said. The companies gather data “carefully and
methodically” to prevent business disruptions.

Banks are preparing for Occupy demonstrations at the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization’s Chicago summit on May 20 and 21
by sharing information from video surveillance, robots and
officers in buildings, giving “a real-time, 360-degree” view,
said McNary, who works on the project.

Elk Versus Wolves

Banks cooperating on surveillance are like elk fending off
wolves in Yellowstone National Park, he said. While other
animals try in vain to sprint away alone, elk survive attacks by
forming a ring together, he said.

Planning for May 1 in New York began in January in a
fourth-floor workspace at 16 Beaver St., about two blocks from
Wall Street, according to Holmes. The date serves as an
international labor day, commemorating a deadly 1886 clash
between police and workers in Chicago’s Haymarket Square.

The midtown demonstrations will take place from 8 a.m. to 2
p.m., followed by a march from Bryant Park to Union Square and a
4 p.m. rally there, according to an online schedule. Protesters,
including labor unions and community groups, have a permit to
march from Union Square to lower Manhattan, according to police.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s headquarters is among financial-district picketing options, Holmes said.

Atrium Closed

Banks are bracing. Deutsche Bank AG is closing the public
atrium of its U.S. headquarters at 60 Wall St., which protesters
have used for meetings, Holmes said. Duncan King, a bank
spokesman, declined to comment.

New York police can handle picketers, said Paul Browne, a
spokesman. “We’re experienced at accommodating lawful protests
and responding appropriately to anyone who engages in unlawful
activity,” he said. “We’re prepared to do both next month.”

Banks have a history of coordinating security with city
authorities. At a 2009 U.S. Senate hearing, Police Commissioner
Raymond Kelly described a partnership with financial-district
firms that gives his department “access to hundreds of private-security cameras.” Footage is monitored in a downtown Manhattan
center, he said. A 2005 letter Kelly wrote to Edward Forst, then
chief administrative officer at Goldman Sachs, shows it was
among firms getting space in the facility.

‘Fire’ Rekindling

Starting in 2010, JPMorgan gave the New York City Police
Foundation the largest donation in the group’s history, the
bank’s website shows. The gift, valued at $4.6 million, included
1,000 patrol car laptops. “These officers put their lives on
the line every day to keep us safe,” Chief Executive Officer
Jamie Dimon, 56, said in a statement on the website.

New York companies have provided services and equipment for
decades and are proud to show their support, Browne said. The
foundation is the department’s fundraising arm. Goldman Sachs,
News Corp. and Barclays Plc were among 16 donors who gave at
least $100,000 through the year ended June 30, 2010, according
to the foundation’s website. Dozens of others gave less.

Last year’s anti-bank protests were “like a big forest
fire that was suppressed and put out,” Chris Swecker, the
former head of security at Bank of America, said in an
interview. Firms are studying protesters because “there’s also
the opportunity for spontaneous fires to spring back up again,”
said Swecker, who runs a security-consulting firm in Charlotte,
North Carolina.

Private-security teams in London have become an
“incredible army” and “the eyes and ears of the city” thanks
to a coordination program called Project Griffin, according to
Rachel Briggs, policy director at the London-based Institute for
Strategic Dialogue. The organization develops responses to
security challenges.

‘Show of Strength’

The heads of security of most of the major banks there have
formed a group called “sister banks,” said Ian Mansfield, a
London police counterterrorism security adviser. They do more
than gather and share information with one another and the
police, he said by e-mail. “Sometimes we will ask for a high-visibility deployment around premises basically as a ‘show of
strength,’” he wrote.

“When you portray a position of weakness, it invites
attack,” said McNary, the Pinkerton director. “They don’t want
to provide the perception that they’re hunkering down behind
their bulwarks and putting up big walls.”